Conversion Time: A New Nurgle Heldrake

Hey there everybody! Welcome back to another edition of Chaos Corner. Today I have a sequel of sorts to a previous article, which you may want to peruse first HERE. In any case, allow me to present... my second Nurgle Heldrake...

So, as you may have seen in my previous article- I love the Heldrake (having 2 for my Khorne Bezerkers), but I felt that the model just wasn't "Nurgl-y" if you well, and given the model it appeared (at first) to be difficult to make suitable conversions. Of course, as a Chaos player I always have my eyes to conversion. Thus, one day I was in my hobby shop and I said to some of the gaming group that it I was thinking of combining the Heldrake with the Fantasy Zombie Dragon. The gaming group was impressed, save one. One of the circle of gamers sighed, saying that there was no way to do such a conversion. Naturally, I could not resist such a challenge and thus began to work furiously at a conversion.

I loved how that turned out. However, once I was done I realized I had a ton of parts left over- certainly enough to do another 'drake? So, I envisioned what the second one would look like, and immediately began work. However, there were problems. With the parts available, this would be a trickier conversion to pull off- I'd need lots of putty and brass rods. I also wasn't sure if my "vision" would look right, even if I could pull it off. Finally, other projects kept vying for my attention- the Imperial Knight, Plague Drones, Dreadnoughts, etc.

Finally, in the midst of summer, I began work on a Nurgle Forgefiend- and I decided to work on the Heldrake simultaneously (Am I ambitious or what?). Thus, I was properly motivated by Grandfather Nurgle to get this bad boy done.

So, let's break it down piece by piece. I put the Heldrake neck/head on the zombie dragon body. This did not fit on nearly as well, so I had to do some putty work. Putty is easy for Nurgle- you can make it look like ridges or sickly growths or whatever. It hides a multitude of sins. I then put the wings on. I could only do the two, otherwise the model would pitch. Again, I had to putty the hell out of it to keep the wings in place. I wanted the wings up, to give it some motion (it's swooping quickly).

At the back end, I wanted to put the heldrake legs on. Here, I used brass rod and drove it straight through the model. Then I glued the legs to the rod. Finally, I used putty to cover the rod.

As I looked at the model, I saw that a few things felt missing. First, in the rib cage it looked awfully empty. Thus, I decided to make putty intestines dangling in there, as if Father Nurgle wants its guts to spill everywhere to infect his enemies. I also put putty intestines around the brass rod holding up the heldrake in order to give the rod more support.

But, something still was amiss. I didn't like how he looked suspended just by the rod. It just wasn't appealing. So, as I mulled it over I did something I rarely do- I made a scenic diorama base. I used some of the spare building pieces I had to make it appear he is flying over an Imperial city. And from the one side it hides the rod almost completely.

And yet... I wanted more from the scenic base, so I decided to literally make a scene. I put an Imperial Guardsmen (painted in my brother's scheme) on the outside, looking up fearfully- he is clearly desperate to avoid the heldrake's gaze. So why isn't he hiding inside the wrecked building--- hahaha! Take a look...

But that nod to Walking Dead still wasn't enough. So, I put a zombie inside the building. A victim of Nurgle's plague, the dead man now walks, seeking to spread the joy of Nurgle's Rot with others.

But... to really doom the Guardsman, I put this message...

Boy, is the grunt in trouble or what? If the zombie doesn't get him the heldrake will. I had a lot of fun visualizing that scenic base, and I love how it came out. The scene enhances the look of the Heldarke- he is banking around, looking for a victim.  He looks emaciated and the guts spilling out of him ties him into other elements of my army (Daemon Princes, Plague Marines,  and some vehicles have the guts spilling out).

I am happy that I was able to make two Heldrakes like this. They are really different and to me, they now look like they belong to the forces of the plague god. (And I think I saved some cash, as the zombie dragon is cheaper than a heldrake, thus I have Saved Money the Chaos Way once more).

Well, that's all for now. We have all heard the rumblings--- Dark Eldar are coming up sooner or later. I am hopeful that the new book will continue what the redo started... I really should ally Chaos with the DE at some point, shouldn't I...?

Until next time...